An innovative mix between dance and visual arts, combining works of art, performances and technology, born from the collaboration between Fondazione Palazzo Magnani and Fondazione Nazionale della Danza – Aterballetto

The project combines visual, performing arts and technology in a continuous exchange: Art will be represented by the works of thirteen contemporary artists; Dance will be contributed with the MicroDances created by five international choreographers and Technology will play its role with virtual and immersive instruments that will allow visitors to watch the performances – which will be live only in the opening and closing days – for the entire duration of the exhibition, allowing them to meet both the physicality of the dancers and the matter of art in a totally new way and triggering a new relation with space.

The exhibition path, curated by Marina Dacci, occupies eight rooms in the historical building of Palazzo da Mosto with dance installations interconnected with about thirty contemporary art works of the thirteen contemporary artists invited.
Leonardo Anker Vandal, Bianco-Valente, Fabrizio Cotognini, Antonio Fiorentino, Silvia Giambrone, Gianluca Malgeri, Matteo Montani, Mustafa Sabbagh, Vincenzo Schillaci, Namsal Siedlecki, Sissi and Giovanni Terminiare Italian artists or artists who have lived in Italy for a while, and their works, which share vocation and assonance, will be combined with six MicroDancescreated by five choreographers: Saul Daniele Ardillo, Ina Lesnanowski, Philippe Kratz, Angelin Preljocai and Diego Tortelli. Each performance, conceived by Gigi Cristoforetti, the General Director of Fondazione Nazionale della Danza/Aterballetto, will last only a few minutes and will see one, two or three interpreters dancing in a confined space for the visitors of the exhibition.

Combining art and dance is not unusual, but this project is adding new and further elements where the physicality of the dancers and the matter of art will be supported by immersive virtual technology to present the proxemics between dancers and spectators with different tools. This project has been conceived, since the beginning, as a balanced exchange. In this context, art is not proposed as the decoration of a dance scene, but rather as an enriching element capable of multiplying the evocations and suggestions that are organised in a consistent parallel path. These reciprocities, made of crossings and superimpositions, of multiple visual and sound stimuli, generate resonances that encourage visitors to live a powerful experience.

Marina Dacci

MicroDances is an ambitious project of ‘danced’ performances. Initially conceived to be performed during an exhibition, they were then transformed into the present triple format, which includes public art and technological innovation. Some MicroDances will also be performed later on in other spaces around the city and others have been made into 360-degree virtual reality. Our goal was to open up to public spaces as completely new use models and creative processes, differing from one another. Styles and expressive worlds mix up and talk to each other in this unique project addressed to both the public of art and the public of live performances.

Gigi Cristoforetti